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1. Suzanna - 19 September 2012

   

   Chris,Thank you for the update and link. It does apepar that recovering braking is not especially difficult, under most circumstances but that’s almost missing the point(s): 1) There should be no reason that a driver need to alter their actions to get brakes to work properly. We are long past that stage and, if anything, ABS was designed, in part, to avoid our having to learn to do such things as pump the brakes; 2) One cannot assume that even a good driver will always do the correct thing if something with the vehicle fails to operate correctly. In other words, even a momentary lapse in brake function can trigger a mistaken response and 3) Even if a driver does do the right thing, Toyota has suggested that braking can be lost for up to 1 second. That may not sound like much but even at the relatively slow speed of 30 mph, you’ll travel a full 44 feet, or nearly three car lengths, in that time. At 70, the highway speed in Michigan, you’ve gone more than 100 feet, enough to cause a reasonably serious accident.Nonetheless, until Toyota corrects the problem with the 2010 Prius, it is good for owners to know what to do if the brakes do cut out.Paul A. EisensteinPublisher, TheDetroitBureau.com